Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Legal and constitutional experts gave mixed views on the approval of the budget by the prime minister though video link . Some lawyers say that the budget cannot be approved in the absence of the prime minister while others are of the view that the PM can do so.

The Daily Times conducted a survey in which most of the lawyers said that there was no room in the constitution to approve the budget through video link. They quoted Article 90 and 91 of the constitution under which the cabinet meeting cannot be held without the prime minister on chair. They said that the absence of the prime minister would create a legal crisis .

Constitutional expert Sardar Abdul Razzaq Khan Advocate says that when the prime minister is on leave , he cannot preside over the cabinet meeting and the approval of the budget is the responsibility of cabinet ,for which the presence of the PM in the country is necessary. If the PM is not present then how can the cabinet approve the budget.

“If the PM takes leave of 90 days or more then he has to tender his resignation. We have such type of precedence in the past , when Shaukat Aziz had contested elections , he resigned from his seat and Chaudhry Shujaat became the prime minister for three months” . There is no clause in the constitution about the PM’s leave. He has to submit his resignation.

Senior solicitor Azhar Farooq said that the government was taking cover under the Rules of Business , but it doesn’t know that after passing the 18th amendment , these rules were also changed. The Articles 90 and 91 are quite clear in this regard which say if the prime minister is present , his cabinet is active, but if he is absent , the cabinet stands dormant .

The constitution says that in absence of the president , the chairman senate would act in lieu of the head of state . If the chief justice is out of the country , then the acting chief justice would look after his work but there is no space for acting prime minister in the constitution after the passage of the 18th amendment. Now the constitution does not permit anyone to exercise the power of the prime minister in his absence”, he added.

He said the in case of a no confidence motion , the PM would transfer his powers to the parliament but now there is no no confidence move against him. The parliamentarians left this bottleneck deliberately so that no other person could become premier.

A veteran supreme court lawyer Hashmat Habib said that the prime minister could take leave in case of his sickness and he could transfer his powers to the cabinet but not to any person. He said that the cabinet only approves the budget but it is passed by the parliament so it makes no difference whether the PM is in the country or not.

He said that the constitution is silent about the video link as it was made much earlier than these scientific innovations.